Woman at the Well

5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Deb’s story is a sad one. I first met her when she came to our church service. She was very scary looking with dark black hair and black painted fingernails. She tried to conceal her many tattoos but they rose up above the collar of her shirt and covered her hands. I wondered how to approach such a person. I wanted to be welcoming but I was skeptical of her motivations for attending our church. After the service I introduced myself to her and she began to cry and asked if I had time to visit with her.
I could hardly believe my ears when she told me that she was a high priestess of a satanic cult and she had come to our service because she was taught that evil spirits flee from people when they attended church services and she wanted to be available for those evil spirits to come and make a home in her. However that day she had heard the gospel of Jesus Christ preached that day in a way she had never heard it preached before and something as she put it, “had changed within her.”
Upon further visits with Deb we found out that she was the product of an affair that her father had had with the single woman who lived down the street from her family. Her step mother took her into their family but never gave her the attention and love that she needed. For instance one time the family went on a trip to Disney Land and she was left at home with a sitter.
On e time when she was 12 and was staying at a friend’s house it was discovered, while playing with a weggie board, that she had a deep connection with dark forces and an aptitude for black magic. The parents of her friend took her into their satanic cult and at the age of 13 she became a high priestess. She was so open and receptive to their group because it was the first and only time in her life that she felt accepted. They believed that they drew power from drinking the blood of children so she was the center piece of most of their rituals and was pierced several times. Deb was molested and abused but this she understood to be love and acceptance. She left home immediately to live with her friend’s family. Her parents didn’t even put up a fight. Her parents were glad that she was gone.
The cult consisted of some prominent people in her community who supplied her with a car, money, alcohol, drugs, and a place to live when she was old enough to live on her own. I think that they took better care of their priestesses than we do our pastors. That is kind of sad.
At any rate, she had found her way to our church and had felt the piercing of her heart by the Holy Spirit through the Words that were preached to her that day. She never went back to the cult again. Although they didn’t make it easy for her to leave; she has been shot at by cult members, beaten up by cult members, one Halloween we arranged for her to spend the night at a police station for her safety. Today she leads a children’s program at that church and has a love for Jesus Christ like I have never seen before.
In our reading today Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well around noon. It is important that it was noon because most people came for their water in the morning or evening. But this particular woman came at noon showing that she was outcast in the community and was making sure that she would not run into anyone else.
Like my friend Deb this woman was a product of her circumstances and not of her choices. Deb didn’t choose to be born in to an adulterous relationship; nor did she choose to be raised by a mother who resented her very presence. She didn’t choose the group that would show her affection and acceptance. These things were all results of her circumstances. Later in today’s story we find out that the Samaritan woman has had 5 husbands and they one that she is living with now is not her husband. At first we would think that this woman was promiscuous however in that time and culture women were powerless to divorce anyone for any reason. This means that she either buried 5 husbands or 5 husbands had divorced her or any combination of the two. She didn’t choose to lose her husband’s they rejected her. And because of the many times that she was rejected by husbands the society had rejected her as well. The Samaritan woman in today’s reading was truly a product of her circumstances and not her choices.
Like my friend Deb this Samaritan woman encountered Jesus and He spoke to her. Her, a Samaritan woman who had been rejected by her village; Deb a blood drinking Satanist rejected by her family; Jesus met them each in their everyday lives and spoke to them.
Can you imagine going to the well, an everyday activity, to get water in the hottest part of the day so that you don’t bump into anyone and then meeting this strange Jewish man who asks you for a drink? In shock you smart off to him saying, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” Then he says the strangest thing about having water that you drink of and will never thirst again; Jesus finding you in the everyday activities of live and giving you living water, faith that leads to eternal life. This is what the Samaritan woman and my friend Deb found. Jesus came to them in everyday life and delivered to them living water.
The image of flowing water is interesting in this passage. Jewish people recognize that flowing water cleanses a person. Jacob had given them a well to water their animals and themselves. This water sustained their life on earth but could only sustain them while here on earth; much like the law. God’s law functions on this earth to make us aware that we are sinners and cannot live up to Gods’ expectations. However we try to follow the law because it is a good way to live and it sustains us while we are here on earth. But it is only the living water; water that is flowing that cleanses a person and returns them acceptable to God; the flowing water of faith that comes from the hearing of the gospel preacher by a true preacher.
Both Deb and the Samaritan woman received this cleansing water and ran to tell everyone about their experience. Once a person has heard the gospel, really heard it, and the fountain of bubbling water of faith springs up inside them; their circumstances no longer dictate who they are. They are made new and have been given a new identity in Christ. Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit is now where they draw their identity from; regardless of their circumstances.
This is the living water that was poured over you at your baptism. This water cleansed you and now is bubbling up inside you. As you grow closer to Jesus the fountain overflows more and more. This water was given to you so that you would go and share it with all you come into contact with even in the most mundane of activities you are called to be preachers delivering the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of Jesus Christ. Our Savior, our redeemer, our Lord. And just like the Samaritan woman, you can leave your earthly vessel behind. She left her water jar at the well and ran off to tell everyone in the village the good news. Deb left her old life behind to follow Jesus. You can leave the current circumstances that you believe define you behind and return again to what really gives you identity, your baptismal promise that you have been claimed by Jesus Christ and you are a child of God no matter what your circumstances. This is your identity go and live freely in it.